Table of Contents

• Letter from the Board of Directors
• Projects
• Archive of Our Own
• Fanlore
• Legal Advocacy
• Open Doors
• Transformative Works and Cultures
• Fundraising and Outreach
• Communication and Public Relations
• People and Planning
• OTW 2023 by the Numbers
• Timeline 2023
• Finances
• Statement of Financial Position
• Statement of Activities
• Statement of Functional Expenses
• Statement of Cash Flows
• Notes to the Financial Statements
• Program Expenses
• About the OTW: Mission, Vision, & Values
• Our Mission
• Our Vision
• Values
• About The OTW: Who We Are
• Board of Directors
• Non-Director Officers
• Former Board Members
• Committees

Letter from the Board of Directors

Dear OTW donors, supporters, and volunteers,

2023 saw a lot of changes within the OTW as volunteers across the Organization responded to challenges and worked hard to help us improve day by day.

Volunteers from our Systems committee took charge when several of our sites were subjected to a DDoS attack and worked around the clock to restore functionality within two days. Our Elections committee worked together to respond to a harassment campaign aimed at a Board candidate.

In general, throughout the year, our committees endeavored to make the Organization a more welcoming and sustainable place. Volunteers from every corner of the Organization took part in interviews with our culture assessment firm as the first major step in our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. Strategic Planning began the implementation of a new Strategic Plan with goals for Diversifying Spaces, Internal Sustainability, and Paid Staff.

The Board also had a busy year. We worked hard to implement changes to be more accountable and transparent towards volunteers and membership. We also took steps to make Board work more sustainable and reduce Board member burnout. First, we enabled the Elections committee to pay for elections without requiring Board approval. This means that in the event of severe Board misconduct, even if it involves the majority of Board members, Elections can hold an election without Board approval. Second, we wrote and approved a Board Confidentiality Policy to better protect private information about our members, users, and volunteers. This policy lays out what counts as confidential information as well as what Board members must do to protect it. Finally, we are immensely proud to have supported the founding of our new Board Assistants Team (BAT). BAT is helping us manage and complete projects as well as be more responsive to the OTW community. We look forward to the many great things we hope to accomplish together.

The year saw many great achievements across our committees, and we are excited to highlight a few of them here:

• The 60,000th fandom was canonized on Archive of Our Own (AO3) and the wrangling of tags belonging to no particular fandom resumed. There are now over 12 million posted fanworks and the site has surpassed six million registered users.
• Fanlore continued hosting multiple month-long challenges at the site, adding new editors and readers. Around 5,000 new pages were added, and 141,000 edits were made during 2023.
• Legal worked hard in 2023 defending fanworks and the rights of fanwork creators in multiple areas, including petitioning for a renewal of the vidding exemption to the DMCA, handling mistaken copyright takedown notices for fanworks on AO3, and working with numerous partners against US legislation that would harm queer and fannish communities.
• Open Doors has now imported 101 archives conserving 136,891 works.
• Transformative Works and Cultures published three issues in 2023 including its fortieth overall: Vol. 39 on Trans Fandom, Vol. 40 which was a general issue, and Vol. 41 on Chinese Fandoms.
• The creation of the Board Assistants Team, the OTW’s first new committee since the founding of the AO3 Documentation committee in 2015.

The OTW would be nothing without the tireless efforts of our members, users, and volunteers. The comfort and joy that we all find in fandom are built from the contributions of each and every one of you. As we face challenges and overcome obstacles together, we are continually reminded of our motivation to continue and be a place where the fandom community can gather together.

With gratitude and best wishes,

The Board of Directors

Qiao Chu
Kari Dayton
Jennifer Haynes
Anh Pham
Michelle Schroeder
Kathryn Soderholm
Zixin Zhang

Projects

Archive of Our Own

The Archive of Our Own’s resilience was tested multiple times in 2023 due to a series of attempted DDoS attacks. While the first one in July managed to take down AO3, Fanlore, and the OTW website for a few days, service was restored quickly and site access remained stable through all further attacks. Details of these events were later reported on by Systems.

Despite further attempted attacks throughout the year, the site remained stable and accessible. During the week of the July DDoS attacks, AO3 passed six million registered users, and in November passed 12 million works. By the end of the year, traffic reached 31 billion page views—6 billion more than in 2020—and averaged 84.9 million views per day. Users created 111 million bookmarks during the year, 13 million more than in 2022.

Accessibility, Design, & Technology followed their regular release schedule in 2023, and especially improved user safety and comfort. In one release, logged-in users gained the ability to mute others. In some later releases, AO3 admins gained the ability to turn off guest comments across the site (which helps protect against spam attacks) and users were prevented from leaving kudos on works by creators who have blocked them. Another release of note blocked GPTBot and ChatGPT-User from accessing AO3.

AO3 Documentation made various updates throughout the year, including an updated Accessing Fanworks FAQ, and adding five new terms to the AO3 Glossary.

Systems began the year with a Ruby update, a change in the AO3’s SQL software to MariaDB, and a hardware swap. These caused some temporary problems which required additional hardware and some code modifications. Later in 2023, they also upgraded AO3 to Debian Bookworm and added two new virtualization servers.

Elsewhere at AO3, Policy & Abuse shared a graphic about what types of tickets they received in 2023 – totaling approximately 23,600 tickets, a slight increase from the previous year’s 22,300. Meanwhile, Support received approximately 24,800 tickets, which was an increase from 2022’s 18,000, and likely caused in part by the attacks on the site. Support also took over various duties from Policy & Abuse in 2023, such as duplicate works and Fannish Next-of-Kin sign-ups. Additionally, a post clarifying AO3’s stance on AI and site scraping was shared in May.

Meanwhile, Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 5.5 million tags, an increase over 2022’s 4.85 million; they also announced the exciting restart of No Fandom wrangling. No Fandom tags are tags that don’t belong to any particular fandom and instead can apply to works across all areas of AO3, think of tags like Hurt/Comfort or Fluff. They began testing a new process for these tags to be addressed to allow for new filterable tags to be made for AO3 users.

Fanlore

Fanlore saw over 5,000 new pages and 141,000 new edits made, ending the year with 66,000 pages and 1,353,000 edits exploring the history, culture, people, and artifacts that make up fandom.

Throughout 2023, Fanlore continued to engage with fans through four months of themed posts on social media: Femslash February, Comics Month, Fandom in Color, and Podtober. Fanlore also held its three annual challenges: IFD Fanlore Challenge, Fanlore Bingo, and Stub September.

Fanlore also saw two new chairs inducted, Joanna Pernick and Noah A., and chair Rebecca Sentance retired.

Legal Advocacy

In February, Legal participated in several activities surrounding Fair Use/Fair Dealing week. In March, they joined allies to send a letter to the U.S. Senate supporting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and in July, Legal joined allies, including the ACLU, in opposing U.S. legislative proposals that would seek to silence LGBTQ+ voices online. This work continued through the rest of the year and, in September, they urged AO3 users to make their voices heard on these issues.

Legal also successfully obtained renewal of the vidding exemption to the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA for the sixth time in the OTW’s history!

Internally, Legal responded to concerns regarding cybersecurity and policies surrounding the safety of the Policy & Abuse team in connection with the 2022 attack on our organization. They also dealt with an app that was violating the AO3 Terms of Service by charging money for access to works on AO3.

Legal continued to weigh in on issues of concern to fans. Their post about KOSA and a whole slew of bad Internet bills was widely read and shared. They also discussed fan activities in relation to the WGA strike, explained the fair use implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Warhol v Goldsmith, and updated fans about copyright revisions in Hong Kong which they began working on in 2022.

Open Doors

Open Doors had its fifth most active year for the project, just behind that of 2018, and announced the following 10 imports:

• A Priest in Korea (M*A*S*H)
• Between the Lines (JAG)
• Smoochies (Multifandom)
• Snow Lands (Lion King (1994))
• Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive (Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac))
• The ARC (Primeval)
• The Common People Warehouse (Marvel Comics)
• Viggorli Secret Santa (Lord of the Rings RPS)
• Weir/McKay Fanfiction Archive (Stargate: Atlantis)
• What Makes the Desert Beautiful (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)

Meanwhile, the following 11 imports of archives to AO3 were completed, adding over 10,000 works to the Open Doors collections:

• A Priest in Korea (M*A*S*H)
• Dragonfayth (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
• Echoes from the West (Saiyuki)
• LeBeau Library (X-Men)
• Library of Moria (Lord of the Rings)
• Lord of the Rings Fanfiction (Lord of the Rings)
• Offpanel.net (Multifandom)
• The ARC (Primeval)
• Viggorli Secret Santa (Lord of the Rings RPS)
• Weir/McKay Fanfiction Archive (Stargate: Atlantis)
• What Makes the Desert Beautiful (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)

In October, Open Doors reported on its progress with the AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) which was announced in 2022. At that time, Open Doors had created 45 collections on AO3 as part of this initiative.

Transformative Works and Cultures

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) released three issues in 2023: No. 39, “Trans Fandom,” guest edited by Jennifer Dugan and Angie Fazekas in March; No. 40, a general issue, in September, whose opening editorial worked to stake out the “state of the field”; and No. 41, “Chinese Fandoms,” guest edited by Zhen Troy Chen and Celia Lam. All were released on schedule—continuing TWC’s publication record since the start of the journal. TWC also created a new Assistant Editor position and welcomed two new volunteers to the role. They additionally recruited three new editors to the Symposium team, with a shared mission to elevate historically marginalized voices in academia and fandom.

Fundraising & Outreach

Development & Membership held two successful membership drives in 2023. The April drive raised US$252,343.98 donated by 7,852 people in 71 countries, including 6,450 who chose to begin or renew OTW membership. Later in the year, the October drive raised US$192,743.11 from donors in 74 countries, and 6,113 of those donors chose to begin or renew OTW membership. For each drive, Finance also published mid-year updated versions of the OTW’s budget. Translation translated many of the Drive posts such as the budget update and related graphics, into 32 languages in April and 28 in October.

Development & Membership also worked to move data to a new platform for handling donation activity and launched a Conventions and Live Events team in 2023. The team’s purpose is to coordinate and facilitate the attendance of OTW volunteers in staffing tables and serving on panels at a variety of events internationally. The OTW was present at EuroCon in Sweden; GA05, the ComicCup Convention, and the World Science Fiction Convention in China; LeakyCon and Fan Expo in the U.S.; and Y/Con in France. Due to the success of 2023’s outreach, the committee plans to continue to represent the OTW at events in 2024.

Finance has continued to support the OTW by preparing the OTW’s budget, paying the bills, completing the 2022 financial audit, and ensuring that standard accounting procedures have been met.

Communications and Public Relations

Communications saw many changes in 2023, including the departure of chairs Jess Hindes and Kirsten Wright, and the induction of chairs Claudia Rebaza and Eskici. The OTW’s social media presence saw a significant increase in engagement, likely due to the July DDoS attacks. The AO3 Status Twitter/X account gained 355,670 followers, which more than doubled its total number of followers.

Communications celebrated International Fanworks Day 2023 by hosting a 30-hour chat party on Discord, prompts based on the day’s theme of “When Fandoms Collide”, honoring crossovers and fandom fusions, and a Feedback Fest encouraging fans to share recommendations of their favorite crossover or fusion works.

The ao3org Twitter/X account was relatively inactive during July but it still gained 32,299 followers. Even the ao3wranglers Twitter/X, despite making only two posts in 2023, gained around 1,700 followers. However, the AO3 Tumblr saw the most significant change, gaining 80,159 followers. This more than tripled the account’s followers, making it the largest account growth ever seen by the OTW in a single year.

Growth was static or declined on other platforms, and in May Communications began a review of its posting practices. This led to several changes, such as the termination of manual posts to LiveJournal and Dreamwidth on June 10. Instead, both locations were replaced with automated RSS feeds. The committee also recruited to fully staff the remaining OTW social media accounts with platform-specific moderators, with an assessment planned regarding account growth and engagement by 2025.

Communications also launched the 16th Anniversary Survey in September, which had questions about which online locations were most frequently visited, along with user familiarity with various OTW projects. The survey had 78,258 respondents and was the first OTW-run survey of its users since 2012. The survey results recommended expanding to new platforms such as Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok, along with adding more visual and video news formats.

Readership activity shifted in 2023, with Twitter/X readership declining through the year and Tumblr readership growing. Changes on social media platforms, such as walling off non-logged-in views and algorithms disrupting chronological reading, created significant barriers for the OTW in ensuring information reached fans. As a result, the OTW News by Email service was developed, which allows the OTW to reach fans directly at their inboxes, without going through a third-party site. The service will also facilitate direct contact in case of emergency downtime or other time-sensitive news, such as the July 2023 downtime due to a DDoS attack.

Traffic to the OTW website increased from 1,314,518 visits in 2022 to 1,863,074 visits in 2023. This was likely significantly affected by the events in July, along with the 16th Anniversary Survey. Traffic from our social media platforms accounted for the majority of these visits, at 800,421 views.

Communications handled around 700 queries from fans, website visitors, and the press throughout the year, either responding directly or referring questions to Board and other committees. Communications recorded 21 significant media mentions of the OTW and its projects in the Press Room.

People & Planning

Board held four public meetings in 2023: January 7, March 26, July 2, and November 12, with a total of 403 attendants across all meetings. Beginning in November, the Discord server where Board meetings are held was overhauled to run meetings with less interruption and more time for participant questions. The server was also split into multiple channels, with Board members holding their formal meeting in the #public-board-meetings channel while moderators engaged with #open-chat and passed on participant questions.

These changes were supported by the creation of a new OTW committee, the Board Assistants Team, who helps the Board with administrative and day-to-day tasks, including moderating the Board Discord. This was the first new OTW committee created since 2015’s AO3 Documentation.

In June, Elections announced the 2023 election would be the ninth consecutive contested election for the Board of Directors, fielding seven candidates for five open seats. Each candidate provided a biography and platform, which were translated into 21 languages by Translation. Candidates participated in a series of two Q&As as well as a live chat. However, during the election season, two volunteers withdrew their candidacy, making the election uncontested by the time ballots were sent. The 2023 Election had a 27.80% turnout, with 4,247 of 15,274 eligible voters casting a ballot. The new members of the OTW Board were Anh Pham, Jennifer Haynes, Kathryn Soderholm, Qiao Chu, and Zixin Zhang, who replaced Jess White, Heather McGuire, Antonius Melisse, Alex Tischer, and Natalia Gruber.

In July, Strategic Planning announced the 2023-2026 Strategic plan, which aimed to improve the long-term health of the OTW by recommending improvements to the OTW’s cybersecurity, transitioning to hiring paid staff, and working with committees to succession plan and perform retention analysis.

Volunteers & Recruiting (VolCom) recruited for 27 different roles across 13 committees. Over the course of the year, the OTW received a total of 1,452 applications. VolCom inducted 396 volunteers in total, including five Directors and officers and 15 chairs/leads. They also removed 449 volunteers in total, including five Directors and officers and 13 chairs/leads. At the end of the year, the OTW had 896 volunteers.

OTW 2023 by the Numbers

Timeline 2023

January

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed five releases (0.9.331-35), including some significant changes to AO3’s HTML parser, a ton of gem updates, and an update to Ruby 3.0.
• AO3 Documentation uploaded an updated Glossary, including five new terms.
• Board held a public meeting on January 7.
• Communications celebrated the OTW’s Facebook account passing 2,000 followers and its Tumblr account passing 20,000 followers.
• Finance completed the 2021 audit.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,200 tickets.
• Support received approximately 2,200 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 476,000 tags.

February

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed two releases (0.9.336-37), including the introduction of the ability to mute users.
• AO3 Documentation uploaded an updated Accessing Fanworks FAQ, including some new questions to better guide users.
• Communications celebrated International Fanworks Day (IFD) with several activities including a fanworks challenge, rec fest, and fan chat and games on Discord.
• Fanlore hosted its sixth annual IFD challenge, consisting of a week of daily editing challenges.
• Fanlore honored Femslash February with a month of femslash-themed social media posts.
• Legal closely followed and participated in some important cases that were pending in the U.S. Supreme Court about copyright fair use, content moderation, and trademarks and free expression.
• Legal participated in several activities surrounding Fair Use/Fair Dealing week, which took place on February 20-24.
• Open Doors announced and completed the import of fanfiction archive A Priest in Korea (M*A*S*H).
• Open Doors completed the imports of three archives: Dragonfayth (Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction), Lord of the Rings Fanfiction, and West Wing Fanfiction Central.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 1,700 tickets.
• Support received approximately 1,600 tickets.
• Support chair CJ Record stepped down.
• Systems moved AO3 to some new database servers.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 436,000 tags.
• Tag Wrangling chair briar_pipe stepped down.
• Translation translated and uploaded several news posts into 32 languages for International Fanworks Day.

March

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed one release (0.9.338), including a new collection invitation preference.
• Board hosted a public meeting on March 26, including an update on the work of its Diversity Consultant Research Officer.
• Development & Membership named a new chair, Amy2.
• Legal joined allies to send a letter to the U.S. Senate supporting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
• Open Doors announced the imports of Lord of the Rings RPS fanfiction exchange archive Viggorli Secret Santa and CSI fanfiction archive What Makes the Desert Beautiful.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,000 tickets.
• Support received approximately 1,500 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 449,000 tags.
• Transformative Works and Cultures released issue No. 39, “Trans Fandom,” guest edited by Jennifer Duggan and Angie Fazekas.

April

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed two releases (0.9.339-40).
• AO3 reached 11 million posted fanworks.
• Development & Membership raised US$252,343.98 from 7,852 donors in 71 countries in the April Membership Drive.
• Finance released the 2023 Budget.
• Legal Chair Betsy Rosenblatt participated in the first of the U.S. Copyright Office listening sessions on artificial intelligence and copyright law.
• Open Doors announced the import of Primeval fanfiction archive the ARC.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,000 tickets.
• Support received approximately 1,800 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 472,000 tags.
• Translation translated all Drive posts, including the budget, and related graphics into 32 languages.

May

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed two releases (0.9.341-42).
• Board Director Heather McGuire stepped down.
• Communications named new chairs, Claudia Rebaza and Eskici, to replace outgoing chairs Jess Hindes and Kirsten Korona.
• Communications posted an update regarding the OTW’s position on AI and scraping on AO3.
• Fanlore celebrated Comics Month across its social channels.
• Open Doors announced the imports of the Weir/McKay Fanfiction Archive (Stargate: Atlantis fanfiction) and Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive (Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac)).
• Open Doors completed the import of Lord of the Rings RPS fanfiction exchange archive Viggorli Secret Santa.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 1,900 tickets.
• Support received approximately 1,700 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 428,000 tags.

June

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed two releases (0.9.343-44), including preventing kudos on works from blocked users.
• Development & Membership hosted a table at Euro-Con in Sweden.
• Development & Membership worked with Elections to hold a mini-drive at the end of June to register voters.
• Elections announced the seven candidates for the 2023 Board of Directors election.
• Elections announced the withdrawal of Board candidate Emyn A.
• Fanlore conducted its annual Fanlore Bingo Challenge event which saw participants earn badges for completing wiki editing challenges.
• Legal responded to concerns regarding cybersecurity and policies surrounding the safety of the Policy & Abuse team in connection with the 2022 attack on our organization.
• Open Doors announced the import of Smoochies, a multifandom fanfiction archive.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 1,900 tickets.
• Support received approximately 1,700 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 459,000 tags.
• Translation chair Heleen stepped down.

July

• Due to a DDoS attack that started on July 10, AO3 was offline for a few days.
• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed one release (0.9.345).
• Board Directors Alex Tischer, Antonius Melisse, and Natalia Gruber stepped down.
• Board held a public meeting on July 2.
• Communications co-chair Eskici stepped down.
• Elections announced the withdrawal of Board candidate Audrey R.
• One Elections chair stepped down.
• Fanlore featured a month of Fandom in Color-themed social media posts.
• Legal successfully obtained renewal of the vidding exemption to the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA.
• Legal joined allies, including the ACLU, in opposing U.S. legislative proposals that would seek to silence LGBTQ+ voices online.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 1,700 tickets.
• One Policy & Abuse chair stepped down.
• Strategic Planning released the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan.
• Support received approximately 2,300 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 468,000 tags.

August

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed five releases (0.9.346-50).
• Volunteers represented the OTW at GA05 in Beijing, ComicCup Convention in Guangzhou, and LeakyCon, and Fan Expo in Chicago.
• Elections closed the 2023 election season and published the statistics report.
• Legal worked to oppose U.S. legislative proposals that would be bad for fans.
• Open Doors announced the import of Snow Lands (The Lion King (1994)).
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 1,900 tickets.
• Support received approximately 3,200 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 559,000 tags.

September

• Communications celebrated OTW’s 16th anniversary with a survey accessed over 90,000 times.
• Volunteers represented OTW at the World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu.
• Fanlore named two new chairs, Joanna Pernick and Noah A.
• Fanlore chair Rebecca Sentance stepped down.
• Fanlore held its annual Stub September challenge, which encourages users to create and expand short “stub” pages.
• Legal joined allies in opposing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the U.S. and urged AO3 users to do the same.
• Open Doors announced the import of Between the Lines (JAG).
• Open Doors completed the imports of Weir/McKay Fanfiction Archive (Stargate: Atlantis) and Offpanel.net (multifandom).
• Board approved a new committee, the Board Assistants Team.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,600 tickets.
• One Policy & Abuse chair stepped down.
• Support received approximately 2,000 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 449,000 tags.
• Tag Wrangling canonized AO3’s 60,000th fandom on September 18th.
• Transformative Works and Cultures released issue No. 40, a general issue.

October

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed one release (0.9.351), which included the ability to sort by number of uses in the tag search results as well as a setting to prevent guests from replying to your comments on news posts and other users’ works.
• Board Directors Zixin Zhang, Qiao Chu, Kathryn Soderholm, Jennifer Haynes, and Anh Pham took office on October 1.
• Board finalized a contract with an organizational culture firm, part of the effort to improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
• Board voted Anh Pham as President and Zixin Zhang as Secretary.
• Communications released the results of the OTW 16th anniversary survey.
• Development & Membership held its semi-annual membership drive.
• Fanlore hosted Podtober, a month-long event highlighting fannish podcasts, podcast fandoms, and podfic.
• Finance published an update on OTW’s 2023 budget.
• Open Doors announced the new import of fanworks from print zines to AO3 as part of their new Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP).
• Open Doors completed the import of Echoes from the West (Saiyuki).
• Open Doors released an update on 45 collections created for FSHP.
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,000 tickets.
• Strategic Planning co-chair Kate Sanders stepped down.
• Support received approximately 2,000 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 473,000 tags.
• 28 Translation teams worked on posts for the membership drive.

November

• Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed two releases (0.9.352-3).
• Board held a public meeting on November 12.
• Board Assistants Team named two new chairs, dazyndara and therealmorticia.
• Development and Membership sent volunteers to represent the OTW at Y/Con in Paris.
• Finance filed the 2022 tax return.
• Legal dealt with a large number of overreaching and invalid DMCA takedown notices that had been sent to Bing.
• Open Doors completed the imports of What Makes the Desert Beautiful (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), LeBeau Library (X-Men), and The ARC (Primeval).
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,100 tickets.
• Strategic Planning named a new co-chair, Alex Johnson.
• Support received approximately 1,800 tickets.
• Support named a new chair, Paula.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 402,000 tags.
• Webs named a new chair, cosette, to replace the outgoing chair, Ridicully.

December

• Legal dealt with an app that was violating the AO3 Terms of Service by charging money for access to works on AO3.
• Open Doors completed the import of Library of Moria (Tolkien, Lotrips) and Elusive Lover (Star Wars).
• Open Doors announced the import of The Common People Warehouse (Marvel Comics).
• Policy & Abuse received approximately 1,700 tickets.
• Support received approximately 3,000 tickets.
• Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 397,000 tags.
• Transformative Works and Cultures released issue No. 42, “Chinese Fandoms,” guest edited by Zhen Troy Chen and Celia Lam.

Finances

Statement of Financial Position

As of December 31, 2023

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Statement of Activities

For the Year Ended December 31, 2023

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Statement of Functional Expenses

For the Year Ended December 31, 2023

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Statement of Cash Flows

For the Year Ended December 31, 2023

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Notes to the Financial Statements

Organization for Transformative Works, Inc.

December 31, 2023

Note 1 – Description of Organization

Organization for Transformative Works, Inc. (“the Organization”) was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in the State of Delaware on September 5, 2007, and has 501(c)(3) nonprofit status under the Internal Revenue Code. The OTW was established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. The OTW is a collaborative effort initiated and driven by fans for fans. Over 900 volunteers contribute to the OTW’s five major projects (Archive of Our Own; Open Doors; Fanlore; Legal Advocacy; Transformative Works & Cultures) as well as fundraising, membership development, and internal management and administration.

Note 2 – Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Accounting

The financial statements of the Organization are prepared on the accrual basis of accounting in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”).

Financial Statement Presentation

The Organization utilizes Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 958, Not-for-Profit Entities. Under FASB ASU 2016-14, the Organization is required to report information regarding its financial position and activities according to two classes of net assets: net assets without donor restrictions and net assets with donor restrictions.

Net assets and changes therein are classified and reported as follows:

• Without donor restrictions – Net assets that are not subject to donor-imposed stipulations.
• With donor restrictions – Net assets subject to donor-imposed stipulations that will be met either by actions and/or the passage of time or net assets subject to donor-imposed stipulations that will be maintained permanently.

The Organization has net assets with donor restrictions of $0 as of December 31, 2023.

Donations Receivable

The Organization considers receivables from donors to be fully collectible; accordingly, no allowance for doubtful donations is currently required. If donations receivable amounts should become uncollectible, they will be charged to operations when that determination is made.

Contributed Materials and Services

Contributed materials and services are reflected in the financial statements at the estimated fair value of the materials and services received. The contributions of services are recognized if the services received either: (a) create or enhance non-financial assets or (b) require specialized skills that are provided by individuals possessing those skills and would typically need to be purchased if not provided by donation. This is in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 958.

Contributed services of $187,363 and $199,235 were recorded as operating contributions during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The contributed services consist of legal services donated to the Organization by the volunteers of the Legal Committee.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Cash

The Organization maintains cash at one financial institution which may exceed federally insured amounts at times.

Investments

Investments in marketable securities with readily determinable fair values and all investments in debt securities are reported at their fair values in the statement of financial position. Unrealized gains and losses are included in the change in net assets. Investment income and gains restricted by donors are reported as increases to unrestricted net assets if restrictions are met, either by passage of time or by use, in the period of reporting in which the income and gains are recognized.

The Organization accounts for investments in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures. FASB ASC Topic 820 includes a fair value hierarchy that is intended to increase consistency and comparability in fair value measurements and related disclosures. The fair value hierarchy is based on inputs to valuation techniques that are used to measure fair value that are either observable or unobservable. Observable inputs reflect assumptions that market participants would use in pricing an asset or liability based on market data obtained from independent sources, while unobservable inputs reflect a reporting entity’s pricing based on their own market assumptions.

The fair value hierarchy consists of the following three levels:

• Level 1: Inputs are quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
• Level 2: Inputs are quoted prices for similar assets in markets that are not active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable, and market corroborated inputs which are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data.
• Level 3: Inputs are derived from valuation techniques in which one or more significant
  inputs or value drivers are unobservable and require the entity to make its own assumptions.

Property and Equipment

Donations of property and equipment are recorded as in-kind contributions at their estimated fair value at the time of donation. Such donations are reported as unrestricted support unless the donor has restricted the use of the donated asset to a specific purpose. Assets donated with explicit restrictions regarding their use are reported as restricted support. Absent donor stipulations regarding how long those donated assets must be maintained, the Organization reports expirations of donor restrictions when the donated or acquired assets are placed in service as instructed by the donor. The Organization reclassifies temporarily restricted net assets to unrestricted net assets at that time.

Property and equipment are depreciated using the double declining balance methods over the estimated useful lives of the assets, which are five years. Maintenance and repairs of the assets are charged to operations as incurred. Significant improvements or renewals of assets are capitalized.

Contributions

Contributions received are recorded as contributions with donor restrictions or contributions without donor restrictions depending on the existence and/or nature of any donor restrictions. Contributions which have any restrictions satisfied in the same period they are received are recorded as increases in net assets and are reflected as without donor restrictions.

The Organization did not receive any contributions with donor restrictions during the year ended December 31, 2023.

Functional Allocation of Expenses

The costs of providing program services, fundraising, and administrative functions are summarized on a functional basis in the statement of activities.

See Figure 1 for a summary of Program Expenses.

Income Taxes

The OTW is a 501c3 organization exempt from Federal income and State franchise taxes under provisions of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and Section 1902(b)(6), Title 30 of the Delaware State Taxation Code, respectively. As such, no provision for income taxes has been provided in these financial statements.

Note 3 – Investment Assets

The Organization’s investments are valued as follows:

Note 4 – Fixed Assets

Figure 1: Program Expenses

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

About the OTW: Mission, Vision, & Values

Our Mission

The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate.

The OTW represents a practice of transformative fanwork historically rooted in a primarily female culture. The OTW will preserve the record of that history as we pursue our mission while encouraging new and non-mainstream expressions of cultural identity within fandom.

Our Vision

We envision a future in which all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity. We are proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenges. We preserve our fannish economy, values, and creative expression by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary, our history, and our identity while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans.

Our Values

• We value transformative fanworks and the innovative communities from which they have arisen, including media, real-person fiction, anime, comics, music, and vidding.
• We value our identity as a predominantly female community with a rich history of creativity and commentary.
• We value our volunteer-based infrastructure and the fannish gift economy that recognizes and celebrates worth in myriad and diverse activities.
• We value making fannish activities as accessible as possible to all those who wish to participate.
• We value infinite diversity in infinite combinations. We value all fans engaged in transformative work: fans of any race, gender, culture, sexual identity, or ability. We value the unhindered cross-pollination and exchange of fannish ideas and cultures while seeking to avoid the homogenization or centralization of fandom.

About the OTW: Who We Are

The Organization for Transformative Works is run for fans by fans. The directors of OTW’s Board are all active in fandom, as are the 900 other volunteers serving on our committees.

2023-24 Board of Directors

Anh Pham (President) started drawing fanart of the manga Crest of the Royal Family when they were in primary school, although it would take them several years to stumble into their first time reading a doujinshi or a fanfic. Anh is a Vietnamese fan who often has their interests piqued by their favourite characters in DC, their beloved and niche video games, or Asian media such as Japanese manga and Chinese web-novels.

English is Anh’s second language. They also learnt some Cantonese Chinese from their family over the years, enough to start reading Chinese fanfic years before they started using AO3 in 2013. Prior to joining the OTW in 2022 as a volunteer for the Fanlore Social & Media Outreach team, they also considered positions in Team Vietnamese of the Translation Committee or Chinese language track of the Tag Wrangling Committee. Now, besides their current role in the Fanlore Committee, they are also an Open Doors Import Assistant.

Outside of the OTW, they studied Digital and Visual Art, and they are a freelance artist. In addition, they work as a part-time chef at a local restaurant.

Jennifer Haynes (she/they) works as a research manager and consultant to many companies in the life sciences industry. She has been a volunteer with the Organization for Transformative Works since 2022 as a Tag Wrangler, and has been a member of fandom and the Archive of Our Own for over a decade.

In their day job, Jennifer manages projects across numerous internal and external stakeholders worldwide. She is detail-oriented and thoughtful. She also believes in consistent growth and learning—especially in public, no matter how embarrassing or difficult it may be sometimes.

In fandom, Jennifer is a writer with over a hundred stories published on the Archive. They have participated in and managed numerous events, including: fan weeks, fic remixes, fests, and exchanges across a wide variety of fandoms.

Kari Dayton (she/her) first found fandom at a very young age via Sailor Moon, but it would be several more years until she found fanfic in the Harry Potter fandom. (She strongly believes in Trans Rights and loves the work that has been done to distance the amazing HP fandom from the hateful vitriol the creator espouses.) Although many plot bunnies live in her head, she hasn’t written much fanfic and prefers to work behind the scenes as a Tag Wrangler, a committee she joined in 2018. She is an active Tag Wrangler Supervisor (since 2019) and enjoys helping with admin work and brainstorming ways to make Wranglers’ lives easier.

During the day, she works in tech for a VoIP company, and is the main internal trainer and technical lead for her department. Her day job includes writing and updating documentation, being a resource for coworkers in her department and related departments, answering questions (via chat and email), and training new hires. She is known at her company for helping departments cooperate, facilitating communication between departments, being the person who knows things, and in general thinks information silos are a disservice to all. She’d be happy to train you on any task you’d like to know more about–just ask!

Kathryn Soderholm has spent the last 20 years in fandom, mostly reading and daydreaming elaborate fanfic plots that only occasionally made it onto the page. She has been a volunteer with the Organization for Transformative Works since 2014. Outside of the OTW, she works as a nonprofit administrator, and she is a progressive community activist in her free time.

Michelle Schroeder stumbled upon fandom in high school and refused to let go of it. Mostly they stick to video game and tiny book fandoms and write a lot of fluff fics about their favorite characters. They’re a co-chair for the AO3 Documentation team, and have been part of the Tag Wrangling committee and the Support committee in the past. Outside of the OTW, they work as an assistant manager in a retail store.

Qiao Chu (she/her) discovered fandom back in her elementary school days, almost 20 years ago. She stumbled upon a Cardcaptor Sakura fandom forum and has been reading fanfics ever since. She was motivated by her love for fandom to learn English: she simply couldn’t wait for the translator to update her favorite X-Men fanfic, and decided to read the original text. This is how she discovered AO3, seven years ago.

She joined OTW as a tag wrangler in 2019. She is happy to see that she can make use of her lore knowledge and language abilities in her daily wrangling duties as well as to help users improve their filtering and reading experiences.

She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in materials engineering in Japan and hopefully will get her doctorate next year. She loves to spend her time outside the lab reading manga, playing video games, and participating in fandoms: she sometimes writes, translates, edits, and always, always reads.

Zixin Zhang (Secretary) fell into fandom when she became obsessed with Detective Conan and found her way to online fannish forums, though her fannish life probably started earlier when she secretly wrote fanfiction for Dream of the Red Chamber on her exercise books in primary school. Some of her favourite fandoms include Lord of the Rings, The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles (DMBJ Series), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Final Fantasy XIV. She is also an avid reader of Chinese web novels.

She started volunteering with the OTW as a tag wrangler (Chinese language track) in March 2019 when she saw the call for applications on OTW’s Weibo account. She later joined the Policy and Abuse Committee in October 2019, and the Communications Committee as one of the Weibo moderators in January 2020. She has also previously worked as an admin volunteer for the Open Doors Committee.

Zixin has a bachelor’s degree in China Studies and a master’s degree in Labour Studies. She currently works for a non-profit that provides educational services to migrant workers’ children and advocates for educational equity while being a cat mom at home and a bird watcher at large.

Non-Director Officers

Yuechiang Luo (Treasurer)
Zoë Tucker (Diversity Consultant Research Officer)

Former Directors

Committees

Accessibility, Design, & Technology
AO3 Documentation
Board Assistants Team
Communications
Development & Membership
Elections
Fanlore
Finance
Legal
Open Doors
Policy & Abuse
Strategic Planning
Support
Systems
Tag Wrangling
Translation
TWC
Volunteers & Recruiting
Webs

Read more about our committees.